Page 19 - 20090506 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - May / June 2009

The Truth About 2012 19 19 The Truth About 2012 Mayan prophecy (2012) Mayan prophecy (2012) by by Robert Carroll Robert Carroll The world will not end on 12-21-2012, at least not according to the Maya, who knew about as much about our planet's future demise as Gordon-Michael Scallion, St. Malachy, Edgar Cayce, Zecharia Sitchin,or Nostradamus, namely, nothing. The Maya had zero, zilch, nada, mix bá'al to say about the hoax planet Nibiru or the end of the world. Mayan urban culture, known as the Classic Period, flourished from about 300 A.D. until around 900 A.D. in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula and parts of Central America. During this period the Maya built temples and monuments, created numerous works of art and writings, continued their astronomical in a future millennium? The Mayan leaders Sacred Tree referred to the ecliptic. Apparently observations, and built a network of cities. couldn't see far enough into the future to plan that was only part of the picture, for the Sacred These cities lay buried under jungle growth for for and solve the human problems they faced: Tree that [the Mayan king] Pacal ascends in centuries. One of the important discoveries too many people on too little land, destruction death is more than just the ecliptic, it is the from these ruins is that the Maya had several of their own environment, farming techniques sacred doorway to the underworld. The calendars. One is known as the Long Count and deforestation that depleted soil nutrients, crossing point of Milky Way and ecliptic is this calendar, which is reset to day 0 every droughts (partly brought on by their doorway and represents the sacred source and 1,872,000 days, a period known as The Great deforestation programs), and so on. Why should origin. [Apparently, Jenkins is interpreting Circle (Diamond 2005: 167). The next reset we think the Mayan prophets would be any Pacal's sarcophagus, which depicts the Sacred date, by some calculations, is December 21, better at seeing the distant future than the Tree emerging from what has been called an 2012. Obviously, this calendar is of no interest Hebrew prophets or Nostradamus? umbilical cord.*] to the Maya any longer, since their civilization While it is true that the sun conjuncts the collapsed over a thousand years ago. (Though the "Cosmic" Maya Sacred Tree on December 3rd in the year 755 there are people today who are the descendants A.D., over the centuries precession has caused of the Maya and the culture lives on through the conjunction date to approach the winter them.*) Nevertheless, this date is of enormous Dee Finney's Mayan prophecy website solstice. So, how close are we to perfect interest to certain doomsday prophets and New promotes the idea of the "Cosmic" Maya. Age astrologers, such as John Calleman, who Finney's source for much of the prophecy conjunction today? Exactly when might we expect the winter solstice sun to conjunct the are spreading the good news either that the speculation is Charles Gallenkamp's book Maya knew the date when the world would end Maya: The Riddle and Rediscovery of a Lost crossing point of Galactic Equator and ecliptic - the Mayan Sacred Tree? Any astronomer will or they knew the date when a New Age of Civilization. On December 21, 2012, there will tell you that, presently, the Milky Way crosses Transformation would begin.* (The Mayan be an "alignment between the galactic and solar the ecliptic through the constellation of glyphs and hieroglyphs aren't crystal clear about planes." The winter solstice sun will "conjunct Sagittarius and this area is rich in nebulae and what the calendar means.) Too bad they couldn't the Milky Way." This is supposed to open up high density objects. In fact, where the Milky predict their own collapse. some sort of "cosmic sky portal." You can see a Way crosses the ecliptic in Sagittarius also According to Jared Diamond, picture of this alignment here. But the picture happens to be the direction of the Galactic The famous Maya Long Count calendar can only be properly explained by an astrologer, Center begins on August 11, 3114 B.C.--just as our own such as John Major Jenkins: Any astronomer will probably also tell calendar begins on January 1 of the first year of If we make a standard horoscope chart you that an alignment between our sun and any the Christian era....Presumably, the for December 21st, 2012 A.D., nothing very particular point in the Milky Way will just bring Maya...attached some significance to their own unusual appears. In this way I was led astray in another day in paradise here on planet Earth. In day zero, but we don't know what it was. my search until Linda Schele provided a clue in (Diamond 2005: 167) the recent book Maya Cosmos. Probably the any case, Jenkins is not alone in his interpretation of the mysterious Mayan Long There was no writing in the New World most exciting breakthrough in this book is her Count calendar. until 2,500 years after the Mayan year zero but identification of the astronomical meaning of A Guatemalan anthropologist and there is evidence of agriculture in Mesoamerica the Mayan Sacred Tree. Drawing from an student of Mayan history and calendars, Carlos from about the time of day zero on the Mayan impressive amount of iconographic evidence, Barrios, has a similar interpretation. It is true calendar. This could be just a coincidence, since and generously sharing the process by which that the Long Count calendar ends in December the areas where agriculture first emerged were she arrived at her discovery, the Sacred Tree is of 2012, but the world will not. According to not the areas where the Maya would eventually found to be none other than the crossing point of Mr. Barrios, the end of the calendar signals a build their cities. the ecliptic with the band of the Milky Way. transformation of some sort, but not the end of The Mayan Long Count calendar is Indeed, the Milky Way seems to have played an the world. Barrios does not deny that the Maya based on a complex system of units ranging important role in Mayan imagery. For example, were prophets, however. According to him, their from days (kin) to 144,000 days (baktun). an incised bone from 8th century Tikal depicts a calendars predicted the coming of Cortez in Whatever virtues the Classic Mayan long sinking canoe containing various deities. culture might have had, predicting the future This is a picture of the night sky and the canoe 1519. seems an unlikely one. This fact has not stopped is the Milky Way, sinking below the horizon as some very bizarre speculation about Mayan the night progresses, and carrying with it deities Continued on Page 21 astronomy. The speculators should ask representing the nearby constellations. FOR ALL YOUR WEBSITE AND themselves: what is the likelihood that a The incredible Mayan site of Palenque INTERNET NEEDS civilization that couldn't use its vast knowledge is filled with Sacred Tree motifs and references to save itself from self-destruction was to astronomical events. In their book [A] Forest REL-MAR McConnell Media Company concerned with predicting what would happen of Kings, Schele and Freidel suggested that the www.rel-mar.com